A few days ago I wrote on my WhatsApp status, “I wanna be happy on my own terms, not yours”. For some, it sounds selfish. Isn’t it? But I wrote that by reflecting the reality around us.

People are constantly receiving demands, requirements, terms and conditions, in their daily lives from their work, their school, their teachers, their friends, even by their own families.

Those requirements are often related to our happiness, by their own terms. For example, you are single and haven’t got married by 30. Your family starts asking, “why haven’t you got married?”, “What kind of guy/girl are you searching for?”. Sometimes they even start judging, “You have way too high standard”, “Don’t be too hard to people who wants to get to know you”, and many other sentences you can relate to. As if when you haven’t got married in the age of 30, you won’t be happy and you ARE not happy.

But hey, we have our own terms to be happy. We can be happy on our own terms without following the standards of others’. I’m not saying that their terms are bad, no. Their terms, I’m sure, are based on their concerns because they care about us.

But again, this is your life, not theirs. We are the one who understands all the circumstances that happen in our lives. We are the one who should decide what we’re going to do and bear with the consequences. It doesn’t mean that we will just turn down all what they say, but we need to understand ourselves, our limitations, our strength, our goals so that we can also create our own happiness.

It is not about being selfish, it is about self understanding and be happy on our terms. You probably will be misunderstood, or misjudged but… you all already know the risks, right?